[AFA-X: Overall impressions] The size of the event was much smaller than I thought. It's half or one third of the Tokyo Anime Fair(TAF). Please see this floor-plan photo for detail.

Yet the visitors' are very strong in their enthusiasm. The place is moderately crowded even after one or two hours after the opening. But after 11a.m., the place became rather congested. When I went for my lunch, the queues at the food court were surprisingly long.

AFA had always been held at the Suntec City convention centre. However, the human traffic looked beyond the capacity of Suntec. Perhaps, it's the time to consider re-locating the event venue from Suntec to the suburban Singapore Expo.

Compared to TAF, AFA had lots of Merchandising booths. The ratio of exhibition/merchandising was 80/20 in TAF. That of AFA was 50/50, I feel. This could be a reflection of the popularity of anime goods in SG(there are much fewer ways to purchase anime goods compared to Japan.).

(This photo is taken on the G/F of Suntec. AFA-X is held on the 4th floor.)

(It's very crownded on the 4th floor, not so easy to get to the entrance.)

(This is entrance of AFA-X.)

[Merchandising booth] There were two types of shops. One was the manufacturer's official shop (ex. Cospa), the other was the temporary booths of local shops (ex. KKnM). Unfortunately, I couldn't tell if the pricing was reasonable or not.

The idea was not bad to show Itasyas. But I was not satisfied with the display. The number of Itasyas were only three or four.

Besides that, all the Itasya were professionally finished. So they were just like commercial vehicles rather than doujin/amateur private cars. In Japan, this kind of Itasya booth could easily attract over 50 cars handmade by amateurs. For future events, the organizer should ask local Itasya owners to gather up and show off their private Itasya at the site.

[Cool Japan booth]

This was the most disappointing section. I can agree with the concept of "Cool Japan". However, most of the exhibits were out of place. Today, no one(incl. non-Japanese) would be surprised to see commercial products that were easily available at Japanese mega shops(like Yodobashi/Bic Camera). If the organizer liked to show commercial products, It's OK if the booth was a bargain sale counter under the name of "Cool Japan". If the pricing was attractive (and if the sale items were all cutting edge products), it would be a much better booth than this "Cool Japan" section. To promote "Cool Japan", I think that non-commercial products should be shown off. Here's my personal "must exhibit" items in this kind of showcase.=========================================================================== *Humanoid robot: ASIMO < HONDA

She is maybe a contributor or a shop staff, too. Madobe Namami[JP-link] is the Japanese local mascot character to promote Windows7. I highly appreciate her craftsmanship to make a costume outfit from scratch. (You can see her CM video in youtube.com)